The present exemplary embodiment relates to power systems. It finds particular application in conjunction with connectors for power systems, and will be described with particular reference thereto.
Power systems convert input electrical power from one form to another for driving a load. Motor drive type power converters are used in a variety of applications to provide electrical power to drive a motor load. For instance, motor drives may be needed to power low voltage as well as high-voltage motors, and multiple motor drives may be connected in parallel to accommodate higher load requirements. In a typical situation, AC input power is initially converted by an active or passive rectifier circuit to provide a DC bus voltage for use by one or more output inverters to create variable frequency, variable amplitude AC output power to drive an induction motor load. Ultimately, the motor drive outputs the waveforms necessary to drive a motor to a desired speed, position, torque, etc.
In general, the variability in the requirements of a given motor drive application often require custom designing and configuration of system components and their interconnections including the necessary power converters and filter components which are then connected together to form a power system. In order to accommodate a wide variety of power system specifications while minimizing system cost, it is therefore desirable to provide modular components that can be used in building two or more different types and forms of systems.
In systems using modular components, electrical connections between the components and/or an enclosure in which the components are located need to be secure to ensure a robust connection. In the past, strict manufacturing tolerances were implemented to ensure proper alignment of the electrical connectors between components and/or the enclosure leading to increased expense. This approach seeks to minimize any misalignment of the connector components during assembly, and accommodates misalignment that may exist from manufacturing tolerances or from other sources.
One approach to accommodating a small amount of misalignment between mating electrical connectors is to provide a spring loaded connector component. The spring loaded connector component can be deflected a small amount to accommodate some misalignment between connector components. This solution accommodates limited number and amount of axis misalignment.